The Little Nyonya... Recommended?

Nyonya cuisine is blooming in Penang and this franchise The Little Nyonya Cuisine小娘惹 that is recommended by famous TV host in M'sia, has operated for a long time in Queensbay Mall. It's always full of crowd during the dinner hours or over the weekend, it does trigger my eagerness to try it out. We're finally here, on the request from our friend that has just back from Wuxi.

While waiting for the arrival of the VIP Boon Li, we've decided to try out the Melaka Nyonya Cendol马六甲娘惹煎蕊 and Bee Koh Moy or the Black Glutinous黑糯米粥. The bowl of Cendol is definitely not to the standard whereby the ice is too rough, the green Cendol is too hard and it's not crunchy while the Melaka Sugar is neither smell good nor tasty. Luckily that the Bee Koh Moy is quite tasty especially with the extra coconut milk. It'll be more delicious if it's slightly hotter but I guess the cold coconut milk has somehow chilled up the glutinous rice.

To order the food, we've started with the page of vegetable such as the Otak-Otak窝达, Yu Wu Chay鱿鱼炒 or Stir-Fried Turnip with Cuttle Fish that is served with Oh Ah Chai or the green vegetable and the Sambal Kacang Botol叁巴虾米炒四季豆 or Four Angle Beans. I dislike the Otak-Otak because it's too creamy and it's not spicy at all. The turnip is still quite tasty but the Sambal Chili tastes a little bit weird, I 'm wondering if it's because of the fishy Belacan? The Kacang Botol is supposed to be a spicy dish yet it's using a sweet-based chili that the sweetness has covered the freshness of the beans.

We've ordered some fried dishes that include the Nyonya Fried Chicken娘惹炸鸡 or Enche Kabin胭脂鸡, Deep Fried Otak Beancurd炸特制窝达豆腐 and the Fried Spring Roll. The Enche Kabin is the only dish that I really like it as the chicken is crispy while the meat is tender and it has an acceptable tastiness! The beancurd is a mixture of Otak-Otak with the chopped beancurd that is then deep fried in the hot oil. Both of the Otak Beancurd and Spring Roll taste quite ordinary that nothing that is really impressing myself.

To have some sauce in the rice, we've decided to take the Nyonya Asam Pedas Fish Fillet娘惹亚叁辣鲜鱼片. This is a curry dish that is cooked with Asam that it's supposed to taste spicy and sour or in other word, an appetising and refreshing dish. Here at The Little Nyonya, this dish is sweet while the fish meat is very hard. It's really disappointing!

We're a group of 6 pax and all of us feel so disappointed with the Nyonya cuisine here. It's the problem of this franchise only or the quality of food that gets worse over time or it's indeed the original taste that has been bad since beginning? I've no clue but I'm sure that we're all disappointed with this meal here.